I was struck by this story about Bill Baker, the head of Bell Labs' research division, and a simple daily practice he employed to fuel his own creative practice.

"Every day at lunch he would sit down with the first person he spotted in the cafeteria, whether he was a glassblower from the vacuum tube shop or a metallurgist from the semiconductor lab -- 'Is it okay if I join you?' he would ask politely, never to be refused -- and would gently interview the employee about his work and personal life and ideas. 'At the end of any conversation,' Baker's friend and colleague Mike Noll recalls, 'you would then realize that he knew everything about you but you would know absolutely nothing about him.'"

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